The Mermaid of Black Conch by UEA graduate Monique Roffey has been longlisted for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, which is worth £3,000 to the winner. The novel was published last year by Peepal Tree Press. Monique graduated from the English Literature BA programme at UEA in 1987. Her first novel Sun Dog was published in 2002. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, published in 2009, was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize and the 2011 Encore Prize. Archipelago, published in 2012, won the OCM BOCAS prize for Caribbean Literature in 2013, while House of Ashes was shortlisted for both the Costa Fiction Award and the OCM BOCAS prize. The Mermaid of Black Conch won the 2020 Costa Book Award and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and longlisted for this year’s OCM BOCAS prize. It is currently also shortlisted for the 2021 Republic of Consciousness Prize, which rewards books published by independent presses. The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction is sponsored by the Orwell Estate’s literary agents, A M Heath, and George Orwell’s son, Richard Blair. The shortlist will be announced in mid-May and the winner at the end of June.
Monique Roffey longlisted for Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
